What's a Turn-row?

in-too-deep

Well-known Member
In a Jason Aldean song, the lyrics go, "Put the tailgate down on a turn-row. Watch the corn grow..." Is a turn-row like headlands or endrows of a field? Southern term? Thanks!
 
You"re right on there, that is what we call the headlands of a field here in Texas. Another regional term I guess. It's where we turn to start the next round.
 
(quoted from post at 07:18:12 02/19/13) You"re right on there, that is what we call the headlands of a field here in Texas. Another regional term I guess. It's where we turn to start the next round.

I've lived in TX almost all of my 73 years and I never heard of "headlands" What part of TX are you in?
 
First time I heard it called that too but kind of figured it out. I guess calling it a turn row does self explain it more than a headland as I know it.
 
I think Aldean is from the South and turnrow tends to be a Southern term. Being from the Corn Belt (IN) have never heard that term until his song. We always called them endrows. There are places in the South that do not plant field ends for whatever reason.
 
(quoted from post at 15:46:11 02/19/13) I think Aldean is from the South and turnrow tends to be a Southern term. Being from the Corn Belt (IN) have never heard that term until his song. We always called them endrows. There are places in the South that do not plant field ends for whatever reason.

Just for the record. ...from the "Taste of Country" website,

Everything about ‘Take a Little Ride, from the lyrics to the melody, sounds just like a Jason Aldean hit should. That’s exactly what the song’s three writers — Dylan Altman, Rodney Clawson and Jim McCormick — were hoping for when they turned in their demo after penning the song.

“It’s funny … I was really the only country guy in the room,” Clawson says with a smile. “Dylan’s from New Jersey and Jim grew up in New Orleans. He was actually a college professor in New Orleans when he was in his 20s. We just broke out all the little country things. I’m the guy who grew up on a farm, went to college, came back, farmed with my dad for 15 years, so I can just start listing off stuff.”
 
I hadn't heard that term much either growning up. We always called them turnrows here in Jackson County along the Coastal Bend. Headlands is a term I learned when reading about plowing with antique turning plows. Apparently it's still be used in other parts of the country to describe turn areas and borders.
 
Its headlands in the far west, too- you finish up a field by "plowing out the headlands"- never liked to do that, because no matter how nicely you plowed the rest, the headlands would be kind of a mess, where they went across the other furrows. Of course, all I ever plowed was sod, and it tends to end up looking messy, regardless.
 
I'm in middle TN. Most people call them endrows around here. There are a few that call them turn rows. Its seems to be turn rows around cotton farmers more I think.

Chris
 
Down here in cotton country, you always planted cotton at the end of the regular rows, usually 4 or 6 rows on both ends of the field, then when plowing the crop and when you got to the end to turn, thus turn rows. Wasn"t near the number of plants due to turning, but nothing went to waste.
 
We always called them headlands at home here in Illinois too. I always questioned the purpose of the headlands too. I guess it made the field look more square or neater. You couldn't see the crooked rows in the field that way...LOL
 
Usually the term here in Central KS wheat country means corners. In other words, most people farm around and around here, including plowing. When you came to a corner, you would lift the implement up, turn the corner, and then set it back down and head to the next corner. This would leave an unworked piece at each corner that would end up going from the center of the field (more or less) when you were done, all the way out to where each corner started. Then you would go back and work the "corners", or "turn rows" out as you were finishing up the field.
If there was some row crop, where you went back and forth, the ends were obviously called end rows.
 
Turn row and turn road are names used by people down south for headlands. It seems to be found more in Mississippi than anywhere.
 
You don't plant the turnrows (end of the regular rows) because you can't plow them. They would be to rough when turning. You want to be able to keep it bush-hogged or disked clean. When harvesting, especially with a cotton picker, you have to get down at the ends and clean out the doors on occasion. So you want a good clean place to do that. Also, you park your cotton trailer at the ends of the field so you can dump when full.
 

Makes those songs make a little more sense, all I could see was the butt whooping that would have come if we had parked our pickups in the headlands when we were in high school. I assumed turnrows were planted.
 
Bingo! We irrigated cotton with dirt ditches and siphon tubes. When it was time to pick, we would fill in the ditch, and disc the turn rows so we could turn the picker and had room to fill the trailers. I don't miss greasing those drums every day and I sure don't miss the smell of defoliant or cutting stalks two rows at a time!
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top